Green's Thermos
by xPhineasx
Summary: It's quiet up here on the mountain, and it's cold. The snow has blocked up the pass home. What will happen if the snow doesn't stop? Red/Green. OriginalShipping


Green's Thermos

Original Shipping: Red/Green

Rated: G

A/N: So I wrote this fic pretty much in one sitting. I was sitting here on my bed, getting all jazzed up about Pokemon Black/White coming out on Sunday and I opened up my fan art folder and found all my Red/Green art and felt inspired.

So here ya go. I hope you all like it.

X x x x x x

It's very quiet up here on the mountain, and very cold. It gives me a lot of time to think about the world, the things I've done, the places I've gone and the places I have yet to go. Every now and then, a challenger will appear; some brash, hot blooded young trainer with the same fire in their eyes that I know I used to have. They make me feel aged, some how. They treat me like I am a legend, the finale of their grand adventure. If they can beat me they have proven themselves. Most of them lose quickly, beaten down by my powerful Pokemon that I have spent so many years up here training. The good ones come back to try again. The great ones try a third time.

Every now and then, I do get beaten, and that defeat reminds me why I am here. I am training in the most inhospitable place known to us, the abandoned outcrop of stone between Kanto and Johto. I will stay here and train until I have a reason to stop training and leave.

It's peaceful here. It's simple and wild. There are no buildings and people, no cities and shops. Just me, my pokemon, and wild. I have room to breathe here. No more Gym battles, no more Team Rocket. My phone doesn't even get reception out here. Only the occasional challenger, and the wild Pokemon that are both my friends and my foes.

It is quiet here, and peaceful here, but it's also very cold here. On dark winter nights like this one, I begin to miss the world I left. I begin to miss my mother, and the warmth of a bed. But it's been snowing for weeks now, and the pass back home is all snowed up. My Pokemon are tired. Other than Pikachu, they all stay inside the warmth of their pokeballs now.

Pikachu and I sit inside our cave, watching the last of our firewood crackle in the dark, and wonder what we are going to do. We may have to blast down the mountain to make the snow move, but that could hurt both Viridian and Newbark town if the avalanche get's out of hand. We can't risk it, and I can't even be sure that Pikachu still has enough power to do it.

What will we do if the snow doesn't stop?

"Red?"

I roll over, hugging Pikachu against my chest. The firewood is little more than ashes now; its heat almost gone.

"RED!"

I'm trying to open my eyes, but it's cold. I'm tired. I just want to sleep.

"God dammit, Red. Get up!"

A blanket is wrapped around me, and I feel the warmth of another person holding me close to them. I open my eyes slowly, just a crack. "...Green?"

Green's face swims in my vision. His cheeks are red and blotchy from the cold, and he's all bundled up in an over sized jacket. Snow lingers in his hair. He's holding me against his chest, and I can feel the warmth of his breath on my skin. I didn't realize how cold I was.

"Hey, loser." He says, a smile breaking out over his face.

"How did you get here? The pass is snowed up. Charizard's been out of PP for weeks and I was out of elixirs." I say, my voice cracking from being unused.

"Arcanine got through." Green says.

Slowly I sit up. Pikachu has hopped off my chest and is cuddling with Arcanine and Eevee only a few feet away, obviously happy for the warmth as well. "You came looking for me." I say in barely a whisper. I had nearly forgotten about Green in my time up here, so far removed from the rest of the world. My old rival had barely crossed my mind in the many years I'd been gone. Even when I would go back to the town to get my Pokemon healed or buy supplies, I rarely went to see him.

I look at him now and I can see in his face that while I had nearly forgotten him, he'd never forgotten me.

"Well, it's a bad storm, Red. You know how I feel about you being up on this dumb mountain."

The feeling is beginning to come back into my fingers and toes painfully, as Arcanine's fur heats up the cave. I feel more alive now. Green reaches into his bag and pulls out a thermos of soup, just for me and it's still hot. I take it, sipping at it slowly, letting the heat linger in my mouth.

"You could have died up here." I look up at Green as he says this. He's staring at me, oddly intense, the olive green of his eyes flickering. I look back down at the steaming cup of soup in my hands. It's an expensive thermos, good at keeping in the heat. Small cartoon vulpix are printed on the side of it, wrestling over cartoon strawberries. It's a silly thing, but it makes me think about how Green had come all the way up the mountain in the middle of a snow storm just to make sure I was ok.

"..."

"Red." He sighs. "Finish your soup. We'll sleep here tonight. Arcanine will keep the cave warm. Tomorrow we'll head back down the mountain and get your Pokemon to a center." He says and walks over to his Pokemon. He lays down, head on the great dog's paw and closes his eyes. He must be exhausted from climbing all the way to the summit tonight.

It's quiet again, save for the sound of Green's breathing. I sip the soup he's brought me, and think.

Why am I up on this mountain? It had started off as a way to get stronger before going off to Hoenn and beyond, but the time for that was long past. If I wanted to go to the other regions, I could have left long ago. Instead I had just settled down, enjoying the silence, the feeling of being isolated, and yet no more than a days trip away from my childhood home if need be. And time passed, and those trips home had become less and less frequent.

Looking at Green though, his hair over his eyes, his silly vulpix thermos in my hands, I wonder if perhaps all my isolation has come at a greater cost than I had thought about. I finish the soup, stand up and walk over to where he's sleeping. I lay down right next to him, our noses almost touching, our fingers grazing.

When we go back to town tomorrow, maybe I'll ask him if I can spend the night with him. Maybe I'll spend the week. Maybe I'll promise to come down off the mountain at least once or twice a month to see him. Maybe my trips to town will eventually out number my trips to the summit of Mt. Silver. Maybe this is my reason to stop.

Because it's quiet up here on the mountain, but it's much warmer here with Green.


End file.
